


Rings

by flippyspoon



Series: Pour Some Sugar on Me [50]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-monster Billy, flangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 11:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19440937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon
Summary: Steve thinks Billy deserves new rings.





	Rings

“How’re you feeling?” Steve said. He shut the back door of Scoops and Billy rolled his eyes as he followed Steve across the expanse of parking lot to the Camaro.

“Just fine, Harrington. For the millionth time.” Billy was still wearing his lifeguard trunks and a flimsy tank-top that didn’t really function as clothing.

When they reached the car, Steve turned Billy around. He cupped Billy’s cheeks between his palms.

Billy blinked at him and his breathing changed just a little as Steve touched him.

“Let me just…” Steve looked into Billy’s eyes, searching for any signs of veininess.

_“Hargrove, what the hell…?” Steve mumbled._

_He had been looking for Billy Hargrove. They all had. They thought he had been killed and then they had thought he’d killed somebody else and then suddenly there was Billy Hargrove, coming out of nowhere and clobbering him, growling like an animal, his cries echoing in the quiet of the mall after hours. But then he had stopped and rolled over, clutching himself and screaming. He’d scrambled forward and then back, his face a rictus mask. He looked like someone fighting himself._

_Steve crouched and made a weak attempt to get to his feet, his sneakers squeaking on the linoleum of the mall floor now slick with blood. Billy was struggling to his feet in front of him. He looked wrong. His icy blue eyes were black with tiny veins that swirled and pooled. The cords of his muscles bulged unnaturally and the golden tanned skin turned to something like a slimy shell. It was happening so slowly that Steve didn’t register it until there was suddenly a monster standing in front of him._

_“Hargrove,” Steve whispered._

_Steve watched the monster stand on its several legs. He couldn’t have pointed to eyes but Steve felt he was being looked at for a moment, until the monster turned around and ran away._

“You look a little pale,” Steve said, frowning.

“I’m not pale,” Billy protested, dropping his eyes from the intensity of Steve’s stare. “Jesus. You’re worse than Owens.” He didn’t move though as Steve stood there with his palms cupping Billy’s face, his thumbs resting against those too pale cheeks, though really they did have more color in them than they’d had a couple week ago. The toxin would take probably another month to disappear completely, Owens had said.

“Just like to make sure you’re okay,” Steve said, finally dropping his hands.

“Well, I’m okay,” Billy mumbled. “C’mon. Let’s go chill at the quarry a while.”

In the car, Billy bounced on his seat as he drove, the corner of his mouth turned up as he flicked from station to station, looking for the right tune. Steve cracked a window, feeling the breeze on his face. He took off his Scoops hat and fanned himself with it before dropping it in his lap. He watched Billy’s thick fingers fidget with the radio dial as he glanced to the road and back.

“Didn’t you used to wear a lot of rings?” Steve said. “On your fingers?”

“I lost my best ones,” Billy said. “During the…”

“Oh,” Steve said. “That sucks.”

At the quarry, Billy parked and they looked out on the rocks below, the sky clear as a bell and cerulean above them as they smoked with the windows rolled down, listening to Sabbath. Somehow Steve could hear the slight smack of Billy’s lips when they met his cigarette and when they came away again. He watched the smoke spiral and drift out the window. Steve impulsively grabbed the half-full pack of smokes that sat under the gear shift, pulling one out for himself and grabbing the Zippo from Billy when he offered it.

“I could buy you some new rings,” Steve said, and watched the sun flash on Billy’s necklace when he turned his head. “Didn’t lose your necklace anyway.”

“Why would you buy me rings?” Billy’s voice sounded low like gravel, like the rocks in their quarry.

_The two monsters were fighting each other._

_The smaller one was Billy._

_He was losing._

_Black goop oozed from the punctures to his exoskeleton._

_Steve held his side where he still bled, and skittered back in the street, idly holding an arm out to keep the kids back as if they might bolt forward and try to come between the two beasts as they fought._

_Max screamed, “Billy!” She was crying._

_Steve realized he had forgotten for the entire day that Max was Billy’s step-sister as she now crawled forward, tears streaking down her face, her mouth drawn in horror._

_“Jesus,” Steve muttered, as she watched Bruce appear to kill Billy Hargrove in front of them. “Jesus…”_

_“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” Eleven said. She was just behind Steve. Her voice sounded too flat and also as if it were coming from far away when she was really next to Steve’s ear. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way…”_

_Eleven had told Billy to fight back, is what Steve understood. She had gone into his mind and spoken to him in the void. She had told Billy to fight off the monster and help them instead of letting it take him over._

_When that idea had been suggested, Steve had laughed._

_Now Billy was dying and Steve wasn’t laughing anymore._

_Bruce was dying too._

_That was something._

_Billy had saved them after all._

“Why not?” He smiled because Billy was sitting there now, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, his gaze flitting around like he didn’t know what to do with it. “You deserve some rings. Nice pricey ones. Silver and gold. Diamonds.”

“Harrington…”

“What?” Steve leaned on his hand and smoked and watched Billy flutter.

“You make such a big deal out of it…”

“Yeah,” Steve sighed, shaking his head. “So weird how I make a big deal out of you sacrificing yourself for me and everybody I care about-”

“I didn’t _die_.”

“You absolutely thought you were going to die. We all thought you were dead for like hours.”

Billy started to answer that and stopped, emitting only an impudent little choking sound that was not a confirmation or a denial. He smoked his cigarette and squinted out his window.

“It’s just so weird,” Steve said. “You always strutted around like Mr. Big Dick all the time over bullshit and then you did something real like really real and you want to pretend it didn’t even happen-”

“I dunno how to talk about it,” Billy blurted out around his cigarette.

“What do you mean?”

Billy shrugged.

“Is it like, you’re sorry you did it or something?” Steve stubbed his cigarette out and exhaled his final drag.

“No! Jesus.” Billy had thick fingers. Steve grabbed one of his hands that was tapping on the steering wheel and examined it, tracing his lifeline. Billy’s cigarette nearly fell out of his mouth. “Hey…”

“I think you deserve rings because you decided not to be a monster,” Steve said. “And you saved everybody even though you thought you were gonna die. And you can’t take it back.” Steve grinned at him and idly clasped Billy’s hand with his, squeezing it. “It’s too late. You’re a hero, asshole.”

Billy was staring at their hands. “Eh…”

Steve laughed at him and tilted his head, his hair falling over his eye and he tried to pull Billy’s hand away but Billy held it fast, pulling Steve towards him. He took his cigarette out of his mouth with his other hand and threw it out the window and blew smoke downwards at their intertwined fingers.

“You’re right,” Billy said, so quietly that Steve strained to hear him. “It’s the only real thing I’ve ever done. That’s why I dunno how to talk about it.”

“I mean I’m here if you ever want to,” Steve offered. The radio was playing “What About Love” and the beat of the song sounded just like the beat of Steve’s heart.  
They were parked at the quarry holding hands.

“Why?” Billy said.

“You ask me that a lot,” Steve said, rubbing his eyes. He moved Billy’s hand around as if playing with it meant they weren’t really holding hands so much as goofing around.

“Your answer’s always different,” Billy said.

“This is my favorite part of the day,” Steve said, and turned Billy’s squarish hand over now, watching Billy’s fingers wiggle between his. “This is my favorite thing.”

“ _Why_?” Billy said.

“I like being here with you,” Steve said. “I like looking at you and seeing that your eyes aren’t all scary and veiny. I like thinking about what you did and how different you are since it happened. I even like when you try to pretend it didn’t happen at all and act all cool like nothing’s changed even though…” He held up Billy’s hand and clapped his other palm to it so Billy’s hand was sandwiched between his. “Is that what you want me to say?”

“I… Is it true?” Billy mumbled.

“Yeah. I mean also, you’re crazy hot so…”

Billy blurted a laugh now and his cheeks turned so red and so unlike the pale they had been for weeks as he grinned at Steve with bright seaside eyes that Steve yanked him forward and their lips met, warm and a little chapped as Billy squeezed Steve’s hand. Steve opened his mouth just enough to let Billy’s tongue in and he reached up to tangle his fingers in Billy’s damp curls, bringing him closer. Billy tasted like strawberry candy and coconut and his wicked tongue curled with Steve’s and they pressed against each other, wrapped in warm skinned limbs, until Steve finally pulled away just enough to nuzzle Billy’s slightly burnt nose with his own. He let his eyes slip shut and rested there in Billy’s arms.

“You know, I’d do it again just to save _your_ ass,” Billy whispered, a grin in his voice.

“I’m gonna buy you so many rings,” Steve said in his ear.


End file.
